A MAN sees the world dyed pink every time he orgasms due to a rare and bizarre condition.
The otherwise healthy patient was referred to a psychiatry clinic after his sex life became a bit more colourful than usual.
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Referred to as Mr R in a case report published to the Iranian Journal of Psychiatry, the 31-year-old man noticed that objects around him appeared sharper, brighter and pinker whenever he climaxed.
Doctors carried out a number of tests before diagnosing their patient with synaesthesia, a rare and difficult-to-spot neurological condition that causes people to experience a stimulus with more than one sense at a time.
The term translates to “perceiving together” and people with the condition might taste different colours, feel sounds or associate words with different shapes and patterns.
According to the report’s authors, synaesthesia affects up to 4 per cent of the population and there are more than 150 different ways that people can experience the condition.
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But seeing colour while orgasming – as reported by Mr R – is a particularly rare type of synaesthesia.
In fact, only 1 per cent of people with the condition report seeing colours during intercourse, the study authors noted.
Mr R, a married GP, reported experiencing the bizarre symptom while having sex with his wife.
He told doctors that objects looked sharper and brighter than usual when he kept his eyes open while climaxing.
He described these visual changes as “high contrast vision with dominant pink colour everywhere”.
Mr R said the environment around him became brighter as if it was early morning, even if it was actually dark at the time.
As he was a doctor, the patient initially tried to treat his condition using the anti-depressant Sertraline.
But after three months, he sought help at a nearby hospital and was referred to the psychiatric team.
Doctors performed various visual tests on their patient and determined he didn’t have any any colour vision abnormalities.
Nor did Mr R show any signs of sexual dysfunction.
What is synaesthesia?
Your brain relies on your five main senses — sight, sound, smell, taste or touch — to know what’s happening around you
But people with synesthesia experience process information through two or more brain areas at once.
Synesthesia isn’t a disease or disorder – it won’t harm your health, and it doesn’t mean you’re mentally ill.
Up to 4 per cent of the population are thought to have the condition.
There are lots of different ways to have synaesthesia.
Some people can see colours when they hear music, other people can taste flavours in their mouth when they read words and some can hear sounds when they look at bright colours, or watch silent, moving objects.
Doctors aren’t sure what causes the condition, but they think people with synesthesia are just wired differently from the rest of us.
For example, scans of people who say they hear colours show they have a bigger brain response when they hear a sound.
The images also show synesthetes have more connections between the parts of the brain that control their senses.
Synesthesia also appears to run in families and may be passed down from parent to child.
Sources: WebMD, Cleveland Clinic, The Conversation
“Therefore, regarding the patient’s experiences without any visual disturbance and absence of any underlying diseases, the diagnosis of synesthesia was made,” they concluded.
“The ‘orgasm in colour’ is among the rarest types of synaesthesia which is challenging to diagnose,” medics detailed in their case report.
“In contrast to other types of synaesthesia that questionnaires or visual studies could test, the ‘orgasm to colour’ synaesthesia is challenging to study as there is no previous experimental study available for provoking the synaesthetic sensation,” they explained.
The researchers evaluated previous examples of synaesthesia experienced during sex.
Reports suggest that some people may see different colours with various different intensities during each phase of intimacy.
For example, they reported seeing orange at the start of sex, yellow during sex and then pink during climax.
According to Psychology Today, about 2 percent of the population experience colours, flavours or other sensory qualities during orgasm and sexual arousal.
During doctors investigations, it emerged that Mr R had also experienced another type of synaesthesia earlier in his life, which is a particularly rare phenomenon.
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Having suffered from valvular heart disease when he was a child, he recalled feeling “white” whenever he had severe chest pain.
Mr R only saw white when he was experiencing these chest pains, not with any other type of pain.
“The severe chest pains did not continue to adulthood, and, therefore, he did not experience the “white” feeling in adulthood,” researchers said.
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The researchers, from the University of Mashhad, wrote in their case report from 2022: “The present report demonstrates coexistence of a rare form of synaesthesia as orgasm to colour with specific pain to colour synaesthesia.
“In contrast to previous reports, our case demonstrated colour orgasm as a type of synaesthesia that might not negatively affect sex life in men.”